Thie ironic thing is the Tories in 2001 fought on smaller Government & balancing the budget & no more powers to the EU.

People do not realise the borrowng from Labour started in 2001,not as they like to claim ‘only borrowing due to worldwide Credit Crunch’

Labour were warned by the EU every year form 2001 until the start of the CC on their excessive deficit,(largest in EU)more to the point Brown was the one being warned,like everyone who critics Brown, he told them they were wrong.

I believe if the state of things that were present now were present then the Tories would have done much better.

The problem was not the message from the Tories,it was the Tories were still hated.

The same will happen to Labour is oppostition,it takes time for the people to get past the hate stage & onto the start listening with respect stage to what is being said.

I know this myself a true-blue Tory now,i was a New-labour supporter,looking back i can’t believe how blinded by hate for the Tories,i did not listen to the policies that i did agree with,i wasn’t being honest with myself.

I would never vote Labour again.

The whole UKIP argument is up in the air at the moment,be in no doubt the world of politics is going to be much different after Oct 2 over the EU question.

When the Irish vote,a lose lose situation for Labour.

However the timing of the vote is just a day or two before DC gives his last Conference speech of the term.

I believe he could win the GE with his speech, if the Irish vote No & he there & thern could spell out when we would have a vote in this country on Lisbon

If the Irish vote Yes he needs to stick up for Britain not the EU.

Even people in favour of the LT should want a referendum,unlike other treaties this is self amending,in other words it is the last time we would be asked,they will never require any more treaties.

Labour & the Libs would be between a rock & a hard place,infact they still would almost certainly pontificate on whether the Irish would have to vote for a 3rd time,and as the wheels of the EU move very slowly they would not be allowed to say it was officially dead,there would be up-roar in this country from voters hearing that & the rest of the EU anti Lisbon Campaign.

We could go into the May GE not knowing if the Lisbon Treaty was dead.

I hope so, but I’m not so sure; their votes were apparently from “working-class Labour” areas. So can the Conservatives pull them in? Perhaps.

I can’t see UKIP breaking through much in the GE, though; Hague wasn’t exactly successful with “Save the Pound” in 2001, and Farage won’t fight where there are Tory MPs/candidates whose views a close to UKIP’s, i.e. precisely the places where he’d garner many votes.

Mind you, this “20%” habit from Labour is getting a little hard to break; perhaps UKIP is where some Labour voters will go because they refuse to vote Tory?